Intro:
1. William Shakespeare wrote:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow
creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, Out, brief candle
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury
SIGNIFYING NOTHING.
2. The question before us is, “Is life really worth living?” In essence, Solomon concludes, “Not really! Not if you leave God out of the picture. It is a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing.”
3. The Subject of the book of Ecclesiastes – Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity! All is meaningless, pointless, emptiness, and useless. How utterly tragic when life becomes hollow and we feel unfulfilled, insignificant, useless, and just plain irrelevant. Listen to how various translations of the Bible puts it:
1 These are the words of the Quester, David's son and king in Jerusalem: 2 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That's what the Quester says.] There's nothing to anything—it's all smoke. 3 What's there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 (MSG)
1THE WORDS of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2“ Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “Vanity of vanities! All [that is done without God’s guidance] is vanity [futile, meaningless— a wisp of smoke, a vapor that vanishes, merely chasing the wind].” [Rom 8: 20] 3What advantage does man have from all his work Which he does under the sun (while earthbound)? Eccles. 1:1-3 (AMB)
1These are the words of the teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Teacher: 2Life is fleeting, like a passing mist. It is like trying to catch hold of a breath; All vanishes like a vapor; everything is a great vanity. 3What good does it do anyone to work so hard again and again, sun up to sundown? All his labor to gain but a little? Eccles. 1:1-3 TVB)
1 When the son of David was king in Jerusalem, he was known to be very wise, and he said: 2 Nothing makes sense! Everything is nonsense. I have seen it all— nothing makes sense! 3 What is there to show for all of our hard work here on this earth?
Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 (CEV)
I. The Subject of Ecclesiastes. 1:1-3
A. The Man who wrote this Journal. 1:1
1. He is a Speaker
The words of the Preacher - The root word means to assemble together. The implication is of one who spoke before an assembly of people. “Preacher” is not the only way to translate the Hebrew name Qoheleth, we could use words like Teacher, the Philosopher, or Spokesman… Yet “Preacher” may be the best translation of all. The Hebrew root of the word qoheleth literally means “to gather, collect, or assemble.” The verb qoheleth refers to the gathering or assembly of a community of people, especially for the worship of God. So Qoheleth is not so much a teacher in a classroom but more like a pastor in a church… “Ecclesiastes” is a form of the Greek word ekklesia, which is the common New Testament word for “church.” An ekklesia is not a church building but a congregation— a gathering or assembly of people for the worship of God. The word “ecclesiastes” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word qoheleth. Literally, it means “one who speaks in the ekklesia”— that is, in the assembly or congregation… “Preacher” is a very appropriate title for Solomon. He was the king, of course, yet when Solomon dedicated the temple in 1 Kings 8, the Bible says that he “assembled” Israel (v. 1), and then it repeatedly says that the Israelites formed an “assembly” (e.g., v. 14).” [EWEM]
I can identify in the sense that I too am a speaker, but my problem is that I lack a listener. Perhaps Solomon had the same problem, because many, sort of, write of this book as – well, somewhat crazy! But not me, for some reason, this is one of my favorite books in the Bible. Some relate to this book like Jonah might have related to that large fish. A guest on the speaker’s platform was unexpectedly called upon to make a speech. He stammered for a moment, apologized for coming unprepared, then looked at the chairman and quoted what he claimed was Jonah’s admonition to the whale: “If you had kept your big mouth closed I wouldn’t be in this predicament now.” Many wish Solomon had kept his mouth closed because some of the things he will say leave us scratching our heads. Well we may not be able to understand all that he has to say but one thing is loud and clear to those who have ears – this life only makes sense when you include God and live it with eternity in mind.
b. He was a man of Stature. 1:1
the son of David, king in Jerusalem- the only son David had, that was king, was Solomon. The significance of this is that this man had the resources to search out every avenue of life. He had tried to find satisfaction in life through wine, women, wealth, worldliness, wisdom, works, and wickedness – and came up short - empty. His bucket not only had a hole in it, but it also had no bottom at all. That is in spite of the fact that his bucket had dipped into every imagined stream that life had to offer.
There is a familiar saying these days, “Been there, done that!” Meaning the thrill is gone. When I was in Nicaragua I went on the Zipline, it was exciting and scary, and new. I asked a fellow believer who was part of our group, “Are you not going on the Zipline?” He said rather matter-factly, “No, I already been on it several times!” Just about anything and everything we can think of, things that should bring meaning and purpose to life – Solomon could say, “No big deal! I have been there and done that.”
Anything outside of God Himself will lose its excitement and the newness of life always wears off.
B. His Motto.
1. The Futility of life.
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." - Solomon liked that word "vanity"; he used it 38 times in Ecclesiastes. The word means "emptiness, futility, vapor, that which vanishes quickly and leaves nothing behind."
There was a contest at a College for the students to give the best definitions of life. Here are some of those definitions:
• One college student wrote, "Life is a joke that isn't even funny."
• Another wrote, "Life is a jail sentence we get for the crime of being born."
• Another said, "Life is a disease for which the only cure is death."
• Erma Bombeck once said, "If life is a bowl of cherries, why do I always get the pits?"
We try to pretend life is exciting and things are happening but if the truth were known life is more routine and boring then action packed.
Why is this? Because mankind was created by God and for God and since the Fall of mankind, human beings are separated from God. That separation was caused by a word that has all but fallen off the edge of the planet called –sin. I realize we are a “Whatever happen to sin” generation but that is what the real problem is – not climate change but a defiant change in our hearts (Gen. 3:).
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Romans 8:20-22
Hunter S. Thompson, a journalist, committed suicide on February 16, 2005, in his home in Aspen, Colorado. Thompson often wrote for Rolling Stone Magazine. He left instructions that his ashes should be shot out of a cannon atop a 153-foot tower to the tune of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man.” Thompson was 67 when he died, and his family and friends said that he was in pain from hip replacement surgery, back surgery, and a recently broken leg. He'd talked about suicide for more than 25 years. February 2005 was a particularly grim month for him because football season was over. The brief suicide message scrawled with a black marker and titled "Football Season Is Over," reads as follows:
No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always [cranky]. No Fun—for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax—This won't hurt."
2. It is a Fact of life.
What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils –if you leave God and eternity out of the picture what real meaning does all of our work amounts to?
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" Mark 8:36
Leonard Woolf author and publisher wrote, “I see clearly that I have achieved practically nothing. The world today and the history of the human ant hill during the past five to seven years would be exactly the same if I had played Ping-Pong instead of sitting on committees and writing books and memoranda. I have therefore to make a rather ignominious confession that I have in a long life ground through between 150,000 and 200,000 hours of perfectly useless work.”
The problem is, if we leave God out of the picture, we are going the wrong way! We are living with either the wrong purpose or no purpose at all!
It reminds me of something, that happen many years ago, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The University of California and Georgia Tech were doing battle. It was late in the second quarter. Thomason carrying the ball for Georgia Tech is hit, and he fumbles the ball. And, the center for California, Roy Regals picks it up and starts toward the goal line. Only one thing wrong: He's gotten confused, and he's headed toward the wrong goal. Roy runs 67 yards toward the wrong goal with his teammates trying to tackle him and his opponents leading interference for him. Finally, he is stopped on the one-yard line, tackled by one of his own teammates. Can you imagine—running with the ball toward the wrong goal? I can!
That’s the problem with everyone who leaves God and eternity out of their lives…They are confused, living with the wrong purpose or no purpose at all. Sound strange to me – purpose. Sounds like some sort of fish moving through the water. Purpose a life must have.
C. The Mind-Set.
under the sun – this is the key to understanding this book. The phrase is found 29 times and speaks of living life from a humanistic point of view. It is living life without including God and eternity in one’s thinking. Only God can occupy the God-sized vacuum in every human heart. Nothing we do in the immediate can replace the fulfillment that comes from the Ultimate. Obviously, the only thing that can give us eternal satisfaction is the Eternal One. Who but the Infinite God could possibly give the finite ongoing and lasting fulfillment?
Or as Augustine put it, “the soul is restless until it finds its rest in God.”
Dr. McCook imagines a conversation between a bird and a mole, which has just pushed up its head out of the ground:
He heard a bird singing up above on the branch of a tree. He asked the bird, "What are you making such a noise about?" The bird replied cheerfully, "O, the sunshine, the trees, the grasses, the shining stream yonder, and the white clouds on the mountainside. The world is full of beauty." Mr. Mole said, "Nonsense! I have lived in this world longer than you have, and I have gone deeper into it. I have traversed it and tunneled it, and I know what I am talking about, and I tell you there is nothing in it but worms."
Life confined to this life is mole living – there is nothing down here worth getting overly excited about. If all we have is “only this life” then life sucks, and deep down we know it!
And if being a Christian is of value to us only now in this life, we are the most miserable of creatures. 1 Corinthians 15:19 (TLB)
Peggy Noonan said it well:
I think we have lost the old knowledge that happiness is overrated—that, in a way, life is overrated. We have lost somehow a sense of mystery—about us, our purpose, our meaning, and our role. Our ancestors believed in two worlds and understood this to be the solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short one. We are the first generation of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth, and our search for it has caused such unhappiness. The reason: if you do not believe in another, higher world, if you believe only in the flat material world around you, if you believe that this is your only chance at happiness—if that is what you believe, then you are more than disappointed when the world does not give you a good measure of its riches, you are in despair.”
A life lived without keeping God and eternity in mind is a life doomed to be senseless and meaningless. Clarence Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending John T. Scopes in the Scopes “Monkey Trial” (1925), in which he opposed William Jennings Bryan. He was a very vocal atheist and was described candidly by one of his contemporaries, Harry Emerson Fosdick:
To him the "outstanding fact" of human life is the utter "futility of it all"; he thinks that possibly "no life is of much value, and every death is little loss" to the world; he feels that the "most satisfactory part of life is the time spent in sleep, when one is utterly oblivious to existence" and "the next best is when one is so absorbed in activities like poker games" that one is altogether unmindful of self. Rapidly accumulating testimony bears witness that such futilism is one of irreligion's commonest effects. To argue from atheism to badness is false in both fact and theory, but to argue from atheism to depressed enthusiasm about living is plain sailing. The outstanding fact that cannot be dodged by thoughtful men is the futility of it all.”
• Anytime our lives become empty and without meaning, we can be sure that we have lost our focus on God and eternity.
• But when we keep our focus on God and eternity, life begins to take on real meaning.
I am discouraged about how fruitless and empty my ministry seemed. A book I enjoy reading by Watchman Nee, called The Normal Christian Life, helped put things into perspective:
One day I was walking along the street with a stick, very weak and in broken health, and I met one of my old college professors… He looked at me from head to foot and from foot to head, and then he said: ‘Now look here; during your college days we thought a good deal of you and we had hopes that you would achieve something great. Do you mean to tell me that this is what you are?” Nee writes, “My career, my health, everything had gone, and here was my old professor who taught me law in school, asking me: “Are you still in this condition, with no success, no progress, nothing to show?” But the very next moment – I really knew what it meant to have the “Spirit of glory” resting upon me…To my professor it seemed a total waste to serve the Lord; but that is what the Gospel is for – to bring us to a true estimate of His worth…If the Lord is worthy, then how can it be a waste? He is worthy to be served. He is worthy for me to be His prisoner. He is worthy for me just to live for. Has someone been telling you that you are wasting your life by sitting still and not doing much?...Then remember this, that He will never be satisfied without our “wasting” ourselves upon Him.
Johnny A Palmer Jr.
A list of my other books: Go to Amazon.com and type in Johnny A Palmer Jr.
Genesis: Roots of the Nation Vol. 1
Genesis: Roots of the Nation Vol. 2
Genesis: Roots of the Nation Vol. 3
Exodus: Redemption of the Nation. Vol. 1
Exodus: Redemption of the Nation. Vol. 2
Book of Leviticus
Book of Numbers
Book of Deuteronomy
Book of Judges
First Samuel
Second Samuel
Book of Job
Psalms – Vol. 1, 2, 3
Jonah, God of the Second Chance
Nahum, the God who is good and angry
The Gospel of Mark: the servant.
The Gospel of Luke Vol. 1
The Gospel of Luke Vol. 2
The Gospel of Luke Vol. 3
The Gospel of Luke Vol. 4
The Gospel of John.
The Book of Acts
Ephesians: A Manual for Survival
Philippians – A Convoy of Joy.
1 Peter
2 Peter
Jude: Hey Jude
Revelation: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
A Manual for Revival
Practical Principles for Studying the Bible
Read Limit 30 mph
Proclamations from a Politically Incorrect Prophet
Elvis Wellness
Awake for the Dawn is About to Break
Rewards of Rejecting Christ
Which Messiah will you Meet?
GPS-23
Spiritual Survivor Man
A Father's Day Message
A Mother's Day Message
I'm For Life
Double Solitaire with the Trinity
Fuel – The Lord’s Prayer
Back to the Basics
Pistol Packin’ Preacher
